A twist, two trailers at once - we'll discuss them both this Sunday at 3 pm eastern. Many screenshots from both trailers will have their due!
2024-03-21 20:07:44 +0000 UTC View Post
“How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” is a fun question that went viral in 2024, but in this episode we’re concerned more with how often GRRM thought about Rome (and not just the empire) when writing ASOIAF. We’ll also take a few minutes to talk about how HBO’s Rome was pivotal to the making of HBO’s GoT. Ad free version for patrons!
2024-03-20 19:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
A look at the early life of the man who became the most devious in the Seven Kingdoms. We’ll delve into his days on the street, learning to steal and survive, to the mummer’s troupe and being sold for a ritual that maimed him. When left to die, he vowed to live, and what a life it was for the Spider… From near death to Prince of Thieves and a lifelong partnership with a certain bravo named Illyrio Mopatis. Audio only version for patrons.
2024-03-15 10:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Live this Sunday at 3 pm eastern! “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” is a fun question that went viral in 2024, but in this episode we’re concerned more with how often GRRM thought about Rome (and not just the empire) when writing ASOIAF. We’ll also take a few minutes to talk about how HBO’s Rome was pivotal to the making of HBO’s GoT.
2024-03-14 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post
The second half of Aziz's discussion with Alt Shift X. This portion includes spoilers for all Dune books and includes discussions on themes and parallels... and some major differences as well.
2024-03-14 06:07:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Announcing our March ASOIAF trivia night and our April Jackbox Games night! ASOIAF trivia will be on Tuesday March 26th at 9 pm eastern.
And on Tuesday April 30th at 9 pm eastern, we are playing custom Quiplash for ASOIAF/HOTD/GOT, as well as other Jackbox games, so join the Discord server (link) and tag Ashaya to be given the Patron role. You can also go to the Facebook page and group once we are playing and just watch th...
2024-03-09 19:19:33 +0000 UTC View Post
He’s an undead ranger and skinchanger with an elk and ravens… and a mission. He saves Sam & Gilly and leads them to the Black Gate at the Nightfort so they can bring Bran and friends to him on the other side… because he cannot pass. He leads them far to the north and on the way he kills turncloak rangers, makes cannibals of them all, and calls himself “your monster, Brandon Stark”. He helps them fight off wights at the cave mouth where the Last Greenseer resides, but does not fo...
2024-03-07 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostLive this Sunday at 3 pm eastern, voted on by y'all! A look at the early life of the man who became the most devious in the Seven Kingdoms. We’ll delve into his days on the street, learning to steal and survive, to the mummer’s troupe and being sold for a ritual that maimed him. When left to die, he vowed to live, and what a life it was for the Spider… From near death to Prince of Thieves and a lifelong partnership with a certain bravo named Illyrio Mopatis.
2024-03-07 03:19:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe 12 Winners
1 Undead Character - Coldhands
2 Unfinished Scripted Series - Nymeria
3 Robert's Rebellion Era - The Abduction of Lyanna
You favored historical influences over authorial influences resulting in:
4 Wars of the Roses
5 Rome and ASOIAF
6 The Black Dinner (runoff winner vs JRR Tolkien!)
You (mostly) favored non-POV characters in the "Young/Education Of" with a grand total of 1 chapter between these winners. Also you seemed t...
DUNE is one of the most successful sci fi creations of all time, and GRRM is absolutely one of the many who was influenced by it. In this episode, Aziz and Alt Shift X discuss both authors, their styles and the many parallels to Dune found in ASOIAF. There are NO spoilers for Dune 2 the movie in this episode - but look out for part 2 of this episode, which WILL have spoilers.
2024-02-28 20:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a TIE in one of our previous polls (last Friday's poll is also looking SUPER close).
This poll will run until Friday. Shortly afterwards I will announce the full list of winners for all of Topics Moot.
(if you have multiple votes - they will count for this one)
Time to pick 3 winners from Monday and Wednesday's finalists!
Multiple choice is ON
Next Friday we will announce the winners of all the polls* - and before that we have a runoff poll because of a tie last week.
*One has already been announced - Coldhands. That will be the episode this Sunday :)
PS - Aziz's weekly Twitch stream starts at the same time that you're seeing this poll. Come watch the Ninepenny Kings in action: 2024-02-23 23:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Live this Sunday at 3 pm eastern! He’s an undead ranger and skinchanger with an elk and ravens… and a mission. He saves Sam & Gilly and leads them to the Black Gate at the Nightfort so they can bring Bran and friends to him on the other side… because he cannot pass. He leads them far to the north and on the way he kills turncloak rangers, makes cannibals of them all, and calls himself “your monster, Brandon Stark”. He helps them fight off wights at the cave mouth where the Last ...
2024-02-22 14:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostWe came up with so many topics for the Moot, and as usual the goal is to put them into fun categories that turn into polls. However, some topics are not easily categorized!
The top 3 from this poll will face off against the top 3 from Monday's (Supernatural Questions) Poll this Friday. Like Monday's poll multiple choice is OFF.
PS - the first Topics Moot episode will be this coming Sunday! Post coming separately. We will be announcing a full list of all winning topics soon ...
Aegon and Visenya faced no true threats to their reign from the outside, but the biggest problems can start from within, and even the first House of the Dragon was troubled by such. An abundance of Targaryen births late in the Conqueror’s reign set off issues of succession, marriage, dragon-bonding and other matters of power and status. Meanwhile King’s Landing was growing even faster just outside their front door… and even though more dragons were hatching as well, that front door star...
2024-02-21 04:12:54 +0000 UTC View PostQuestions within Questions within Questions... Topics that seek to explain the unexplainable - or at least narrow things down a bit. These will surely have plenty of setup and context, and ways for you to weigh in.
Multiple choice is OFF. Top 3 will advance to Friday!
If your Patreon level gives you multiple votes I will add them in manually, so the displayed final results might not be accurate.
PS - look out for a bonus runoff poll soon, we had a tie last week!
The six winners from the earlier-this-week polls are: a bunch of the oldest characters plus Jaime. Varys isn't as old as the rest but he's probably over 50 while Jaime is 34-35. Nevertheless he is as good a choice as any here.
Any of these characters early lives should make for super fun and revealing deep dives, but only 3 will win!
Aegon and Visenya faced no true threats to their reign from the outside, but the biggest problems can start from within, and even the first House of the Dragon was troubled by such. An abundance of Targaryen births late in the Conqueror’s reign set off issues of succession, marriage, dragon-bonding and other matters of power and status. Meanwhile King’s Landing was growing even faster just outside their front door… and even though more dragons were hatching as well, that front door star...
2024-02-15 01:00:42 +0000 UTC View PostRE-POST if you voted already, please do again - I mistakenly left off multiple choice - oops!
The companion poll to Monday, a list of compelling older characters who do not have POV's whose youth we shall place in the sandbox and under the microscope. Since y'all seemed to prefer older character in Monday's poll, we leaned that way for this one (and we needed to narrow it down somehow!) Plus, older characters are fun because they take us farther back in the timeline.
Like last w...
The First Dornish War was Aegon the Conqueror’s last war. For the rest of his reign he was largely concerned with peace. However, enforcing peace in warlike Westeros is no easy thing. Did Aegon actually rule well, or was everyone just afraid of him? Did his policies lead to the many civil conflicts that came less than a generation after his death? Audio only version for patrons.
2024-02-13 02:29:59 +0000 UTC View PostGiven our style, it's basically impossible to cover any of the main POV characters in one episode. That's why we came up with the A Neducation episode - an episode where we focus on a period of their life, which *can* fit into a single episode.
Let's do another of those! It sure does give us a long list of choices... Because there are so many, I'm going to eliminate the youngest POV's and a few of the most minor.
Easily the most choices we've had in a poll - multiple choice is O...
You weighed in on the polls Monday and Wednesday, here are the ones that got the most votes.
The initial polls were preliminary, the top 3 from this poll will become episodes in 2024!
Multiple choice is ON - pick your favorite(s) from this list of influences on GRRM.
2024-02-10 00:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Our next monthly Discord hangout will be Tuesday February 27th at 9 pm eastern - we are playing custom Quiplash for ASOIAF/HOTD/GOT, as well as other Jackbox games, so join the Discord server (link) and tag Ashaya to be given the Patron role. You can also go to the Facebook page and group once we are playing and just watch there, we will stream it there.
March will have the return of ASOIAF trivia!
2024-02-09 17:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post
The First Dornish War was Aegon the Conqueror’s last war. For the rest of his reign he was largely concerned with peace. However, enforcing peace in warlike Westeros is no easy thing. Did Aegon actually rule well, or was everyone just afraid of him? Did his policies lead to the many civil conflicts that came less than a generation after his death?
2024-02-08 23:38:38 +0000 UTC View Post
The deaths of Queen Rhaenys and even moreso, Princess Meria, led to the end of the First Dornish War. But ultimately the final decision was made by Aegon upon receipt of the mysterious letter that he burned immediately afterwards. What was in the letter? That, and the legacies of Rhaenys and Meria are the focal points of this episode. Audio only version for patrons.
2024-02-08 12:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostFollowing up the authorial influences - let's pair that against history. The top 3 choices from this poll will compete on Friday against the top 3 choices from Monday's poll. Also like Monday's poll, there are quite a few things that could have been on this that are not - but we are somewhat limited by our own knowledge! Others I feel should come later, such as the Hundred Years War, which was set up by (at least) two of the selections below.
PS - Monday's poll was only supposed to have...
2024-02-08 00:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostTopics Moot continues with some meta-subject matter - authors who have influenced GRRM the most! This is not an exhaustive list as a few of the authors who might other appear on this list are too far outside our knowledge base to discuss within our standards... but as you can see it's a big list. Several of these selections will get us reading something new to us, and perhaps we'll inspire you to do the same. Most of these choices will likely inspire us to bring on a guest.
This o...
2024-02-06 03:46:53 +0000 UTC View PostDespite being the primary backdrop for early ASOIAF, the majority of the events of the War of the Usurper remain uncovered by HoW. Let's cast a bit more light on those shadows...
This one is SINGLE choice.
We are 3 polls in now, the first two are still active if you didn't vote! Each one lasts 7 days. There are 9 more topics to choose!
COMING MONDAY: A short bracket style set of polls. Two different 6-choice polls will go up, one on Mon, the other on Weds. 3 topics from ea...
2024-02-03 00:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
The deaths of Queen Rhaenys and even moreso, Princess Meria, led to the end of the First Dornish War. But ultimately the final decision was made by Aegon upon receipt of the mysterious letter that he burned immediately afterwards. What was in the letter? That, and the legacies of Rhaenys and Meria are the focal points of this episode.
2024-02-01 13:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostOver the years we've started several series of episodes that remain incomplete. Topics Moot brings a chance to weigh in on which of those we should get back to.
For those of you with scripted episode extra voting rights, your bonus votes WILL count here. But we will have to add those extras in manually, so what's displayed might not match the actual results. Hopefully this isn't a nonsensical paragraph :)
Multiple choice is OFF for this one - cruel I know... ...
2024-02-01 00:51:04 +0000 UTC View Post